The all-too-common kernel panic "Not syncing: VS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"

[EyeQueue]

 

Hey all,

 

I've done everything I can think of at this point, but after attempting to update my Unraid server (a Mac Pro 5,1) from 6.9.2 to 6.11.5 I am unable to boot. Receiving the kernel panic error in the title. Here's what I've tried:

 

- 3 different USB devices on several different ports, setting them up using Windows and a Mac both

- Manually creating the flash drive vs. using the USB creator

- Copying a backup of my flash drive from 1/13/23

- Copying a backup of my flash drive from 6/12/22

- Appending "root=sda" to the first boot option (also tried sda1 and sd*)
- Deleting the network-rules.cfg file (someone on Reddit said this resolved it for them)

- Copying my backup over and then replacing the bz* files

- Creating the boot drive with 6.9.2, 6.10.3, 6.115

 

It lists my available partitions as:

0800          30044160  sda

  driver: sd

    0801        30043136  sda1

 

Neither of the backup syslinux.cfg files has a "root=" option appended so I really don't think this is it but I'm out of ideas. I know Apple hardware seems to be notoriously difficult to keep Unraid running on, and everyone always says to replace the USB drive like that's a fix-all, but this is a bug that seems to date back to like 6.5 at least and is still occurring and there is no consistent fix for it. Here are links to all the threads I used so if there is a solution someday someone can reference all these. None of these methods have worked for me:

 

 

I haven't tried going all the way back to something nuts like 6.2.4 suggested here but I've tried 6.9.2.

 

I think that's probably enough references, but I've used Reddit too.  I ran into this issue previously once and I thought that I solved it by restoring a backup of my flash drive, but that did not work this time.

 

I've been at this for hours over the course of two days now so if anyone has any other ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

[JorgeB]

1 minute ago, EyeQueue said:

a Mac Pro 5,1

These have been known to be troublesome to get Unraid to boot reliably.

[EyeQueue]

20 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

These have been known to be troublesome to get Unraid to boot reliably.

 

And I totally get that, but I've had it working for a solid year now. Is there really nothing I can do other than build a server and hopefully get the array moved over?

[JorgeB]

Maybe if another user found a way of running it with the same hardware, but I would really recommend replacing that with a standard PC/server

[EyeQueue]

I will add that it seems odd that I never see the boot menu for Unraid either. Definitely have before but can't seem to get it to come up, I just get the grey/white boot screen from the Mac and then if it decides to proceed it boots into headless mode but that's it.

 

A friend of mine has an old desktop that I might be able to cram all these drives into, just gotta get it from him. I'll keep trying with this in the interim and if anyone has any suggestions I'm open to them. Appreciate your help in all these threads, @JorgeB even if we aren't able to solve my trouble!

[itimpi]

One thing it might be worth trying if you have access (even temporarily) to a Windows machine is to format the flash drive using Rufus.

[EyeQueue]

I guess format it with syslinux, copy over the flash drive backup and cross my fingers? I'll give it a go.

[EyeQueue]

Also, this is a 32GB Sandisk Cruzer, so like the top recommended USB drive for this type of stuff unless there is a new recommendation.

[mansley]

I don't know if this is of interest to you, but yesterday I tried and got the same issue on my 5,1. I installed proxmox and virtualized Unraid and I was able to get it to boot. I am waiting for some hard drives to come and I need to test passthrough of host processor and other things - with hope I don't get the kernel panic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2023 by mansley

[EyeQueue]

I may have to try out Proxmox, I'm just worried about all the data on my array. Appreciate the heads up, let me know how things go!

Edited January 20, 2023 by EyeQueue

[mansley]

Pass through. I would suspect, since unraid’s MO is to be able to move your usb and drives to new computers without loss, then you could move everything over to the unraid VM in proxmox. You would need to install proxmox on a unused drive or partition, spin up an unraid vm with usb and pci controller for the hard drives as passthrough. However, this is my first time using unraid so heed and precautions needed.